This is what’s called “the Spartan classic.” Bells’ walls should be quivering. Photo: ASP | Cestari
If ever it was going to happen, it was going to happen at Margaret River. Michel “The Spartan” Bourez has been the Tour’s premiere power vessel for a while now. Yet five years after graduating to the elite level, he had remained winless. Until Margies. His best result had been a runner-up at Keramas to Joel Parkinson last year, an event in which the Spartan put on an absolute clinic in frontside power jams. He’s a two-time winner of the Haleiwa Pro prime event – first in 2008 to qualify for the Tour and again last year. That should come as no surprise. If ever there was a canvas similar to Margs it’s the warbley lumps of Haleiwa.
But the Spartan’s problem has been finding a way to fit his immense power into less suitable conditions. His is a certain style of surfing – one that works best with the backing of a long period swell or at least some room to move.
Raised in the coastal community of Toa’hotu, a dozen or so clicks from Teahupoo, his power game was built on the back of the Pacific’s long-period energy. But it was during his teenage years in France that he was able to fit it into a versatile, competitive repertoire.
In 2007, he was awarded a wildcard into the Quik Pro France where he eliminated Kelly Slater. He followed it up in 2008 beating Bede and Parko on his way to a quarterfinal finish, also as a wildcard.
At Margs, with righthand lumps lumbering, burgering and ridging along the reef, the stage was set for Bourez’s super-human carve game. It was the most challenging of performance canvases, one that demanded power, but even more than that, timing.
When the greatest of all-time, Kelly Slater, admits to struggling with a wave – to the point it started corroding his confidence – you better believe it’s difficult. Margs has been a results graveyard for the 11-time world champion, so much so he took the peculiar step of hiring an obscure early 1990s pro surfer from the region, Mitch Thorson, as his cornerman for the event. It paid dividends as Kelly surfed his way into the semis with a series of laser-guided pocket jams and carves.
When he executed a surreal barrel-to-floater combo in the quarterfinal, it appeared he was in one of those moods and right up until the dying stages of the semifinal, he appeared to be coasting to victory. And then it happened. In a vicious three-turn combo of the kind Margaret River has never seen, Bourez came flying off the bottom with his bulky frame poised for destruction. He opened with a brutal layback spasm in the pocket, timed so perfect it shot him out of the turn with even more speed. He uppercutted the next section, followed by another Spartan classic on the third before, controversially, he fell on the fourth in what was clearly a missed scoring opportunity and left a nicely building foam section untouched.
Upon returning to shore, Bourez was heard to exclaim that he thought the ride was only a 7.5. The judges disagreed, throwing a 9.37 at him. It caused a minor furor, but for Bourez, the argument will be that while he wasted the final section, the vast majority of scoring waves on that day only had three turns in them. And no one had performed three maneuvers in succession with the devastating speed and power the Spartan had.
He would go on to win the event, saying afterwards that his match up with Kelly might as well have been the final. And while that may seem a little disrespectful to runner-up Josh Kerr – the winningest man on Tour at Margarets – it was also true, as he cruised to victory over an uncharacteristically out of sorts Kerrzy. He heads to Bells now, another bowling righthand reef backed by long-period southern swells and with plenty of room to move. He paid 25 dollars to win Margaret River, would you believe? You won’t get that price again.
